John Tracy Kidder (November 12, 1945 – March 24, 2026) was an American writer of nonfiction books. He received the Pulitzer Prize for The Soul of a New Machine (1981), about the creation of a new computer at Data General Corporation. Kidder received praise and awards for other works, including Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003), a biography of physician and anthropologist Paul Farmer, the founder of Partners in Health.

Kidder was considered a literary journalist because of the strong story line and personal voice in his writing. He cited as his writing influences John McPhee, A. J. Liebling, and George Orwell.

Early life and education

John Tracy Kidder was born in New York City on November 12, 1945. He graduated from Phillips Academy in 1963. He attended Harvard College, originally majoring in political science, but switching to English after taking a course in creative writing from Robert Fitzgerald. He received a BA degree from Harvard in 1967. After returning from Vietnam, he wrote for some time, including an unpublished war novel, Ivory Fields, He received an MFA degree from the University of Iowa in 1974.

He explored a wide range of topics through his books—House (1985), a "biography" of a couple having their first house built, and the people involved in the project; Among Schoolchildren (1989), set in an elementary-school classroom in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and reflecting on American education through the lives of these 20 children and their teacher; and Old Friends (1993), which explored the daily lives and personal growth of a pair of elderly men in a nursing home.

In fall 2010 Kidder was selected as the first A. M. Rosenthal Writer-in-Residence at the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. At the Center, he worked with his longtime editor, Richard Todd, on a book about writing, titled Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction. He lectured to students and did research to identify his next narrative subject.

Death

Kidder died of lung cancer in Boston on March 24, 2026, at the age of 80.

  • National Book Award for Nonfiction, 1982, for The Soul of a New Machine
  • Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, 1989–1990, for Among Schoolchildren
  • L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award, 1990, for Among Schoolchildren
  • Ambassador Book Award in American Studies, 1990, for Among Schoolchildren
  • Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, 2001
  • Lettre Ulysses Award (2nd prize), 2004, for Mountains Beyond Mountains

Books

Notes

References

  • Lyceum Agency
  • by Don Swaim
  • C-SPAN Q&A interview with Kidder, October 11, 2009